Cardiff · South Wales
Not sure you can trust the software you paid for?
Maybe you built it with AI yourself. Maybe an agency built it for you and the code that came back looks suspiciously machine-written. Either way, you now own a system nobody senior has ever inspected. Drydock is an independent engineering practice in Cardiff, and inspecting exactly this is what we do.
Sound familiar?
Warning signs we hear every week
- Bugs you already paid to have fixed keep coming back.
- Nobody wants to touch the code any more, because last time something else broke.
- An outside supplier delivered the project, got paid, and has gone quiet. You've since realised much of the code was AI-generated.
- Your hosting bill creeps up most months and you couldn't say why.
- It takes card payments and holds customer details, and no one has ever checked whether that part is safe.
You didn't do anything wrong
Building with AI was a reasonable decision; it got you something working for a fraction of the old price. Outsourcing in good faith was reasonable too, even if what came back turns out to be AI-generated code the supplier never mentioned. The trouble is the same in both cases: these tools produce software that looks finished and frequently isn't. Ships come into dry dock on a schedule, not because the captain messed up.
How it works
From a vague worry to a written verdict
- Answer ten questions. Three minutes, plain English, written for whoever runs the business rather than a programmer. You get a straight answer on screen, and it stays on your screen unless you choose to send it.
- If the check turns up real risk, we talk. Free and without obligation, over a coffee if you're anywhere near Cardiff or on a call if you're not.
- If you want certainty, commission an audit. We read the actual code and test the actual system, then write you a verdict you can act on: what's at risk, what isn't, and what putting it right should cost. Now and then the verdict is "this is fine". You'll get that answer too, in writing.
- Repairs, only where needed. AI usually gets a fair amount right. We keep those parts and fix the rest, which nearly always comes in well under the rewrite an agency would quote you.
Why Drydock
Senior judgement, on your side of the table
Named and local
Your work is led by a named senior engineer in Cardiff, not routed through an account manager or a ticket queue. And we'll happily come to you.
No rebuild to sell you
Firms that make their money rebuilding software have a habit of finding software that needs rebuilding. We sell verdicts and repairs, so we can afford to tell you the truth.
We know these tools inside out
We use AI coding tools every day, at the deep end, and know the corners they cut: the security shortcuts, the code that passes a demo and fails in the third month.
Inherited someone else's mess?
A lot of our work is code handed over by a contractor or offshore team. If you've been left holding something you can't assess and can't maintain, that's a normal Tuesday here.